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Russia, U.S. In a Stalemate Over Syria Chemical Weapons Probe

Russia was playing double speak on Monday, on one hand stating that it was still in talks with the United States about the ongoing inquiry by the U.N. Security Council into the Syrian governments use of chemical weapons on their own people, but the US countered that the Russians have refused to engage on the draft resolution sponsored by Washington.

The U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), has found the Syrian government used the banned nerve agent sarin in an April 4 attack. But yet Moscow continues to play this game that the investigation proving that isn’t over and must continue.

Russia vetoed an initial U.S. bid to renew the joint investigation on Oct. 24, saying it wanted to wait for the release of the latest investigation’s report two days later. It has since proposed its own rival draft resolution.

“We are talking to the U.S., it’s not over yet,” Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters on Monday.

“Russia has refused to engage on our draft resolution – which the vast majority of council members agree is the most viable text – in spite of our multiple attempts to consider Russian concerns,” a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations said on Monday.

A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, Britain and France to pass. The council unanimously created the inquiry, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), in 2015 and renewed it in 2016.

There is precedence here, the Syrian government used chlorine gas in two attacks in 2014 and again in 2015 and the Islamic State used mustard gas. And yet Syria still maintains that it destroyed its chemical weapons arsenal in 2013.

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Robert Hugo Dunlap was a Marine Corps officer whose bravery astounded even battle-hardened Marines on the vicious fighting of Iwo Jima during the US invasion there. During the days of February 20-21, 1945, Dunlap, a company commander in C Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman for bravery above and beyond the call of duty during the fighting on Iwo Jima. Dunlap was born in Abington, Illinois in October 1920 and graduated from Monmouth College with a degree in Economics and Business Administration in May of 1942. He enlisted in the Marine Corps as a private just prior to graduation. Upon graduation, he was sent to the Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, Virginia. He graduated in July of 1942 and was Commissioned as a 2LT on July 18. Dunlap requested parachute training and was sent to the Corps’ school in San Diego where he graduated in November 1942 and was assigned to the 3rd Marine Parachute Battalion. Promoted to 1LT, Dunlap took part in the invasions of Vella Lavella and Bougainville in the Solomon Islands campaign. Standing just 5’6 and 145-pounds, Dunlap hardly represented the image of the MORE »